OT: sort of, other sewing.

I had fun today making 18 linen napkins for my wife who is have a brunch for one of her girly groups on the first of May. She asked me if I would do them and we went up to TSWLTH with a 40% coupon in hand and bought three yards of really nice tan linen that was normally $14.50 per yard for 40% off of that. I tried to use the coupon but the fabric was already on sale for 40% off retail so I got a really nice set of Ginger Embroidery scissors with the 40% coupon. These are the ones with large finger holes. These potato-digger guy fingers, can never fit into the small openings on the small embroiders snips. Problem solved. That is how the store snares you into spending more money than you had planned. I was able to use some of that Gutterman Poly thread that I bought a bunch of in cones for really cheap awhile back. I was unsure what, if anything, I would use it for but it was to cheap to pass up. Now I know. I loaded a spool into the Janome 1600, set the speed at fast, and put the pedal to the metal. Man there was linen flying through the harp of that machine and I finished those napkins in about 3 hours. It was kind of jun just buzzing through that stuff. Still sewing but very diferent than matching points and all that quilty stuff. A good day none the less.

John

Reply to
John
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Did you just serge the edges or hem them? I love a nice turned hem.

Reply to
KJ

I first tried to roll the hem with the three sewing machines I own. I found that the linen is so soft that it wouldn't feed very well into the rolled hem foot. So I pressed a small 1'8" edge and folded it over on itself encasing the raw edge and sewing a line of stitching to basically accomplish what the rolled edge would have done except that it is flat rather than rolled. I like the way it came out and so does my wife, which in this case, is the final judge in this matter. Whew!

John

Reply to
John

Yes, that sounds just right. I bet they are lovely.

Reply to
KJ

i love to take breaks like that. they regenerate you. Get you motivated to do the more complex projects. good job, John!!

amy in CNY

Reply to
amy in CNY

How did you like your visit to So. Cal?

John

Reply to
John

awww. thanks for remembering John!!!! i had a blast!! stayed with my son and his fiance. we did so much. went to see the horseraces at Santa Anita.(i've wanted to go there since i was little and watched the Derby Day on TV before the Triple Crown started. )Pasadena is so pretty. just like i thought it would be. Saw the Aquarium of the Pacific. and did several Art Galleries. just had so much to do in such a short time. i was there for 9 days.

thanks for asking!!

amy in CNY

Reply to
amy in CNY

California can be seductive. It can also be maddening if you live there for any length of time. It seems a world divorced from reality. I enjoyed my 45 years living there, but was glad to get out with most of my sanity intact. I am not saying that Ohio is a better place to live than California, but it is definitely less stressful. Now if I could just get the weather to cooperate, it would be fine. Well, maybe the midwest mindset could take a bit of tweeking also.

John

John

Reply to
John

I agree Ohio could take a bit of tweeking. I came here from KC, MO and am so surprised how different it is here. Sometimes I feel I have dropped into the 70's all over again. The food is also different...but there are a lot of good points too. :-) Small Town, USA is so much more relaxed.

I love Linen napkins. I might have to make some and try out my Singer Hemstitcher. It makes the neatest hemstitch on loosely woven fabric.

Your napkins sound wonderful and now I am inspired.

Peace,

Marsha in nw, OH

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threads

Yes, John, it is seductive. the weather, the scenery, the laid back attitudes (except for the traffic!!). it was so seductive the last 3 times i was there, i put my house on the market. and proceded to take it off due to the market. {{{sigh}}} i guess when it's meant to be, it will happen. but, yes, i do love California.

amy in CNY

Reply to
amy in CNY

Food you say: To paraphrase Rod Serling on the Twilight Zone." Imagine if you will, being caught in the Ohio food space and you are a Vegetarian". That was, and to some extent still is our dilemma. At least now, we have a Whole Foods Market in Columbus(45 mi one way). There is even an Indian/Greek restaurant that just opened up in the next town over. Hope springs eternal.

John

Reply to
John

I don't think this is a good time to be selling a house. It is however a great time to be buying a house. Be careful what you wish for if you do sell and decide to move to Calif. You will be brought up short when you go looking for a house in Calif. Talk about overpriced for what you get. It is truly amazing what people will pay for space to live in out there. I don't think the weather and other lifestyle issues can be enjoyed if all you do is make a house payment and have nothing left over for fabric.

John

Reply to
John

My mind set would probably adjust a whole lot better than yours to that area John but the weather might kill me. Most of my family is in Orange County. (I went to grade school that sat on the Nixon library/birthplace site) I had a discussion with one sister the other day. Let's just say she makes me look open minded! Bay area a whole different place yet.

I guess you just have to find happiness where you are but it sure is easier for me when I am not freezing. Here in the high desert it was

75 yesterday. The fruit trees are beautiful, roses and iris are blooming and my back is killing me from all the yard work. Pool water is 60' though! Taria (born in long beach a half century ago!)

John wrote:

Reply to
Taria

I never got into the whole So. Cal thing. My family moved to Malibu, and then Palos Verdes Estates, from Seattle, and my brothers and sisters grew up on the beach. One of my brothers is a Custom Surf Board maker in Santa Cruz, (Taylor Made Surfboards). I laughingly tease him by saying that he never goes inland further than high tide. I had left the nest long before that, and had settled in San Francisco. That is a completely different lifestyle and climate than Southern California, Or as Mark Twain said," The coldest winter I ever spent, was a summer in San Francisco". I haven't minded the cold too much. To be honest, if I could swing it, (get my wife to agree), I would move further north where the winters are even colder. The worst thing is the half hearted snow that falls here. It just gets sloppy and messy right after it lands on the ground. Give me the kind of snow that falls and stays there for a month or so. I think a log cabin in the north woods, would suit me just fine. I would spend my time quilting and chopping wood. But that is the romantic in me speaking, I think. Unfortunately for me, The other half of the equation is not interested in the more isolated lifestyle that that implies. Ah well, I can dream.

John

Reply to
John

Next time, the secret to a nice hem is ...starch! The same with silk if you plan to wash it what you do is starch it before you start to sew. It stays square while you are sewing. learned that in one of my heirloom classes... When making clothes out of linen or silk I starch them military then cut out and sew. Beautiful results everytime and no problem feeding into a rolled edge foot.

jean in Metz

Reply to
jeanga6

Thanks for the tip. I would not have thought of doing that. Part of the desirable nature of linen is that it is soft. Of course, you can wash it after it is constructed. I will file that away in the data bank for future use. You learn something every time you visit this site, or nearly so.

John

John

Reply to
John

Howdy!

Napkins: I made some. And then I made some more. It was some of the simplest sewing possible, thank goodness. Years ago someone heard some of us quilters talk about making napkins and he said, "You use *cloth* napkins?!?" Of course! He couldn't believe we'd "go to all that trouble" and I couldn't figure out what "trouble" he meant. ;-P

Whole Foods: LOVE IT! There's one in n.Arlington, about

12 miles north of here, so I stock up when I go there, including a big piece of salmon, "The whole piece, please!" We're fortunate to have an H.E.B. Central Market in Ft.Worth, another healthy grocery store. Whole Foods promises a store in F.W., soon. One of those oh-so-clever things W.F. has done, besides encouraging the recycling of shopping totes (take your own for a nickel credit) is printing their grocery receipts on both sides of the paper; sounds simple, but most stores have either a blank back or adverts on the "other" side; Whole Food's receipt is half the size is used to be, w/ the order printed back & front; they estimate saving ? tons of paper - great idea.

We have a good green grocer/produce stand near us; in May - Oct. I can go in and load up w/ at least 17 kinds of veggies in one day! So I do. (we go almost-vegan in the summer )

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the sun shines, the grass rushes upward, the blue iris w/ their golden throats continue to wave gently in the breeze, there are a dozen different birds voicing their opinions near the back patio, and I've been washing quilts.

California: nice place to visit. Laid back: myth.

R/Sandy

Reply to
Sandy Ellison

John, there is a Whole Foods on the west side of Ft. Wayne also!!

We go there quite often. It is wonderful. So "Citified"

Peace,

Marsha

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Marsha

Whole Foods? What's that and where in Fort Wayne is it?

Denny in Fort Wayne

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Reply to
Kiteflyer

Hmmmmmmm, I tried looking it up on the web and there is no listing for Whole Foods HOWEVER it is next to Goodwill at 6256 W. Jefferson Blvd. Just a wee bit west of Goodwill. Hope this helps, we love shopping there and I love their Coconut Shrimp! :-) Civilized grocery shopping, indeed.

That will be one fat quarter of Batik.........please ;-)

Peace,

Marsha in nw, OH

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